The Gentle Scars have been gigging around for a while now but lineup changes and, well, viruses and lockdowns, have prevented them from getting an album (that I know has been in the works for some time), completed. Suddenly, it arrives.
Eleven tracks on an album called ’Songs for the Loveless’. Some very impressive and over the top album artwork surrounds the CD and I’m still staring at it as I listen to the first track Dirty Like You. The song sets up much of the feel of the album with its almost straight rock n roll and heavy bass groove. There’s a big guitar sound, and a jump out chorus with a hint of 80s rock in there. The song breaks down (in the good way) and then suddenly jumps back to to life with a big chorus at the end.
It’s a template followed by much of the album, and as the tunes are so catchy it works. Said Too Much with its hint of Jesus and Mary Chain and its instantly catchy chorus also has echoes of Jonathon Richman. There’s backing vocals reminiscent of 60s pop with a sleazy overground going on.
Invaders post punk not funky baseline, and dirty guitar riff boots the door in. It drips and grinds sleaze. The simple and tight sleazy riffing guitar motors a fair bit.
Throughout the album the breakdowns, the parts were its all stripped away and some shimmering guitar chords slide agains a groove laden bass and funked rock drums allowing the vocals to play easily with the basic melody and then letting songs live and breathe, provide some of the albums best moments.
My Heroine is almost aiming for Phil Spector with its chiming guitar and glorious backing choir that adds sumptuousness to the mix. An empty sounding verse lets the vocals lead the tune. A nice slow song that builds up layers of vocals and instruments as the band keeps its musical nerve and then lets loose at the end.
This is an album full of incredibly catchy - without being pop - chorus’s surrounded by atmospheric set pieces. Song for the Loveless with its Doors stylings and Mondo Trasho that hits a full on 60s vibe show the band is capable of a variety of moods and styles and the exquisite dark disco end of The Pusher that keeps the whole thing in the air with a wah guitar suspended over a bass groove that simultaneously suggests the 80s and the 60s.
The Scars can bounce from suggesting a mood with the merest hints of a song to a chorus that can bury itself in your head instantly in the blink of an eye. If you had to pick an influence then Echo and the Bunnymen may be one you’d choose but Jonathon Richman is also in there. And the album has groove to spare, tight and well produced as it is its the groove, that ethereal quality that no amount of click track can capture that permeates Songs for the Loveless from its most sparse moments to its heavy noise attack sections and then its stand out catchy as hell chorus’s. Recommended.
Words -
RBY
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Album from Detour Records at: http://shop.detourrecords.co.uk/epages/es785745.sf/…